10 Doctor Who Facts You Won't Believe Are True

4. K-9 Was Almost An Actual Dog

Doctor Who Matt Smith Eleventh Doctor
BBC Studios

The goodest of all mechanical boys, K-9 the robot dog has been a beloved part of Doctor Who since he first rocked up in 1977.

Popping up as a friend to the Fourth Doctor, this techno terrier has been revived multiple times across the show's history. His name, of course, is a play on the word "canine", and also the general idea of robots being named with random letters and numbers.

Makes perfect sense - unlike the name he almost got.

After ditching the proposed name "Pluto" when Disney put its foot down, the writers considered calling him "FIDO", which would've stood for "Phenomenal Indication Data Observation", but they dropped that idea, presumably after realising it was really stupid.

Another early idea for K-9 was to have a human actor inside a small Doberman costume, which would've been hilarious. Thankfully though, this concept was vetoed, and K-9 has been a mechanical mutt ever since.

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Jacob Simmons has a great many passions, including rock music, giving acclaimed films three-and-a-half stars, watching random clips from The Simpsons on YouTube at 3am, and writing about himself in the third person.